... is Scotsman on vessel from Africa? (8)
I believe the answer is:
tunisian
'africa?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'is scotsman on vessel' is the wordplay.
'scotsman' becomes 'ian' (common Scottish name).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'vessel' becomes 'tun' (tun is a kind of vessel).
'is'+'ian'='isian'
'isian' after 'tun' is 'TUNISIAN'.
'from' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for tunisian that I've seen is " North African native".)